How to develop speed reading on your own. What is speed reading and how to master this skill Read speed reading

Slow reading leads to the fact that a person is constantly distracted, gets tired quickly, and most importantly, does not keep up with the growing volume of digital information.

Meanwhile, from the seventh grade, that is, at about 13-14 years old, the brain is ready to master faster reading speeds. Here are some tips to help you improve your speed reading skills.

Warm-up "2-3-5"

Any workout begins with a warm-up of the muscles, and when we pick up a book, we immediately start reading. To make your eyes less tired from printed texts and working at a computer, Pavel Palagin in his book “Speed ​​Reading in Practice” recommends that you first “stretch your eyes” by expanding your peripheral vision.

Imagine that the focus of your gaze is like a spotlight beam and you can either expand it or narrow it. Pick up a stopwatch, an A5 book (this is a standard book size), relax and start driving your “beam” over several lines, first from left to right, and then from right to left.

Drive the first minute in two lines, the next - in three, the third minute - in five lines. Try to clearly see all the words on top of each other, but do not try to understand their meaning yet.

At the last stage of the exercise, you should not “move the spotlight” along the lines, but read as quickly as possible with understanding one line at a time from left to right.

"Wedge Tables"

The reading process is based on images. For example, when reading the phrase “Masha ate porridge” sequentially, the image of a girl first appears in the head. Then we imagine that she is eating, and then - that she is eating porridge. Another thing is when you see three words at the same time. The image of a girl who eats porridge immediately appears in my head. This happens instantly and greatly speeds up the reading process.

To see and perceive two or three words at the same time, it is necessary to expand the field of vision.

Print out a wedge chart and focus on the center column first. Then slowly go down with your eyes down, while saying aloud the side numbers. The goal is to reach the end and see the numbers both to the right and to the left of the central column at the same time.

"Labyrinth"

Another important component of the reading process is the ability to concentrate attention for a long time.

This sub-skill is trained with the help of maze puzzles familiar from childhood.

Try to find a way out of this trap with just a glance.

Return eye movements

When reading, we often return to the already read part of the text. This negatively affects comprehension and reduces speed.

In order not to reread the same thing, slide your finger or pencil under the line as you read. Looks "childish", but very effective.

Technique "Harvesting"

This technique is also described in the book of Pavel Palagin.

When you read an interesting paragraph with useful information and proceeded to the next one, this does not mean that the knowledge has passed from the book to you. Your brain remembers the following: “Useful information in the book. If you need to remember it, you will have to reread the book.

In order for the information to become part of you and pass into long-term memory, you need to pause, present the essence of what you read and say the main points to yourself.

The three steps of the Harvest technique:

  1. Stop. As soon as you have read the completed semantic block to the end, stop the reading process, take your eyes off the text and take a short pause.
  2. Essence. Present the basis of the read text in the form of an image, a diagram, a situation, and the like. The main aspects of the new information and the meaning that they carry should appear in your head.
  3. Basic speaking. Try to succinctly and briefly describe in your own words the essence of the text that you imagined. The shorter the better.

At the same time, during the reading itself, it is important to avoid articulation (pronunciation of the text). To do this, you can tightly compress your lips and bite your tongue. And even more “harvest” can be collected by armed with a text highlighter and marking important points in the text (no more than 10 words per thought).

There are a lot of methods for speed reading in our time. Only you can say which one is the best. Choose the one that suits you. You can find speed reading techniques in books, courses, download on the Internet. Many of the speed reading methods proposed by the author can be used online. Special exercises and trainings have been developed to expand the angle of view, increase concentration on the text, and develop memory.

Do I need to read and cram more?

Those who cram are not the most successful and quick-witted people. Have you heard anything about the life successes of high school students?

It never leaves me wanting to learn to read faster! The thing is, reading fast is a must. By the nature of my work, I have to read a lot of literature, documents, etc. But I just physically do not have time for all that I have to do. Ah, my progress in speed reading leaves a lot to be desired.

About speed reading techniques

Dynamic reading- this is a set of tricks that allow you to significantly increase the speed of reading a speed reader without a big loss of reading comprehension. In particular, it should be borne in mind that there is no official separation between "slow" and "speed" reading methods, for the reason that many readers use reading exercises that are suitable for them.

Basic Speed ​​Reading Techniques

  • Elimination, regression, stops, recurrent eye movements. With the classical method of reading, rereading is common, and this significantly slows down the speed of reading and reduces the coefficient of assimilation of information.
  • Practicing the habit of instantly highlighting the main idea of ​​the text, cutting off unnecessary information and reading useful and effective information.
  • Suppression of internal articulation- development of a new reading strategy: . The average reader has the necessary visual reading skills. For example, logos are immediately decoded, ("Nike", "Pepsi", "Ford", "GM"). A lot of familiar phrases are perceived by the picture. At the same time, you should know that incomprehensible words need to be read by decoding words into sound images, that is, pronouncing the text.
  • Review Reading. "Scanning" without carefully focusing on text of little importance.
  • Field of view extensions. Special trainings are used (for example, the Schulte table), aimed at expanding the angle of view to two or three words, a page. Thanks to this skill, a reader who reads in one fixation of a glance can capture much more information than a reader who does not have this skill.
There are many schools of directions, methods, courses that train the skill of speed reading. Most of them are based on the speed reading methods listed above.

Any exercises that develop your brain, your thinking is very useful! It is especially good when these are very different exercises. Then you can be sure that the various functions of your thinking will develop. And all this will lead to the fact that you will change qualitatively.

The exercise kills two birds with one stone - it expands the angle of view, which is one of the conditions for mastering the skill of fast reading. The second hare is the entry into a trance state during classes. Eyes unfocused, directed forward. All signs of trance.

Everyone can learn speed reading without courses and without wasting money.

And now let's use the visualization technology and write down the phrase "a small scientist, but a pedant". All links go to direct texts.

Speed ​​reading is not acceptable if our task is to deeply feel the attitude of the book. Any psychoanalyst will explain how important "insignificant" details are, how much information they carry.

The age of information technology has come a long time ago and every day data and knowledge are becoming more and more valuable, while the technical capacity of computers and data transmission facilities is constantly increasing, and the resources of the human brain are still used only to a small extent. Why do more and more people want to develop their abilities.

Write an article. Now squeeze it twice, then two more. Repeat until one or two words remain. In pair technology, there is such an algorithm for the work of a pair of students - it is called "paragraph reading". In it each has one text.

Before reading the literature, make a short review of it - find out what it is about and in what genre it is written. Review the abstract and content. In order not to load memory with unnecessary information, decide which parts of the book you will read. It is better to read in a calm environment, in the absence of distracting objects. The room should be light. Remember that information is absorbed worse if there is a TV, radio or children playing nearby. The back should be in a straight position.

Diagonal Reading Practice

What kind of people had the skill of speed reading?

He was one of the first to offer some speed reading techniques. They were mastered by Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, John F. Kennedy. They had the best speed reading techniques

To which the leader replied that, of course, he reads otherwise he would not be able to get all the knowledge that he now has. One proven way to speed read is to move your eyes from left to right at a rate of one line per minute. To the greatest extent, the speed of reading reduces the mental pronunciation of the text. Speed ​​reading requires high concentration.

How Hitler read books

Adolf Hitler had his own speed reading technique. He took a book, a magazine, a scientific article in his hand and opened it to the last page. If I saw something worthwhile, I read it. From the memoirs of Adolf Hitler's secretary, we know that the leader was very sorry that he could not read a single fiction book, since his duties included only reading scientific literature. The famous choleric Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin had a phenomenal memory. He remembered the biographies of famous people up to the exact dates, the names of geographical objects. He read works very quickly.

Karl Marx and fast reading

He liked to bend the pages of books and put notes on their margins and Karl Marx. President Roosevelt was simply in love with speed reading. He could read the entire book in one sitting. Honore de Balzac told his contemporaries how easily he manages to read eight sentences at once, and at the same time single out one key one from them.

Passion even for self-testing hinders development. Testing is needed to understand what is happening. There were enough cases in practice when the absolute lack of improvement was associated precisely with the violation of the ban on frequent home self-testing.

Theodore Roosevelt on speed reading

All texts are different. Theodore Roosevelt read two sentences at a time, and then he could easily retell the text, sometimes even verbatim. Maxim Gorky had unique abilities. He perfectly mastered the technique of speed reading and when he took a fresh issue of the magazine, he cut the pages and read the text, as if “drawing” a zigzag. After reading one magazine, he took up new literature. This technique is called diagonal speed reading. To increase the speed of text perception, a set of speed reading techniques is used. Everyone works in tandem with a partner for a short time using the same algorithm. Students change partners many times until they have worked through their texts completely. As a result, everyone gets "very compressed and convex polyphonic" material of their text.

Is it possible to learn how to quickly read billiards?

Try to open a site with Arabic script or Chinese writing, and you will experience the same feelings - "I look in a book - I see a fig."

Those who like to remember do not like to think. Is it possible to remember the history of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)? Please! I got rid of pronunciation a long time ago and, unlike many of my acquaintances, I almost always try to glide over the text with a vertical gaze without much effort and regression. But the problem is that I constantly want to slide through the text faster and faster.

Those who retries gave up early. At first they gave up and proved to themselves that they were not capable. For example, they are unable to remember or pass the exam, and only then the teacher told them this phrase.

Try to read without speaking the text to yourself. Now read a page of text without distraction and without rereading the sentences. Turn the book upside down and read the paragraph. It turns out? These and other simple exercises will help you master the skills of speed reading.

People who want to become professionals in their field must work through a huge array of information. In addition, there are so many in the world, but there is sorely not enough time. There is a solution - to learn to read quickly. And this is possible: quickly, up to 2 thousand words per minute, they read John F. Kennedy, Maxim Gorky and others. For example, every morning before breakfast, Napoleon read one rather voluminous book, managing to mark thoughts important to him in its margins.

And the former American president, who reads at an incredible speed, developed his own, which is successfully used even now by those who want to learn it.

It can be argued that fast reading reduces reading comprehension and assimilation. But practice shows that the opposite is true: with normal reading, about half of the information is assimilated, while with speed reading 70-80%.

Why is it so? Because fast reading requires more concentration than normal reading, during which we read less carefully. We have parallel thoughts: we think about current affairs, for example, that it would be time to turn off the refrigerator, about the upcoming vacation, or we return to past events with thoughts. It is not surprising that reading progresses slowly, and new information is poorly remembered.

You can master the methods of speed reading at special trainings: 5 lessons of 3.5-4 hours are enough. Their advantage lies not only in the fact that the classes are conducted by specialists, but also in the fact that, firstly, the person who paid for the training is unlikely to want to skip classes voluntarily. Secondly, teachers form pairs of students, making classes more effective. Thus, those who risk missing a lesson will let their partner down - the obligation to him will serve as an additional incentive not to shy away from classes.

You can do it yourself. To do this, you just need a great desire, faith in the result and daily training. And if many have a desire, then with faith it will be more difficult. Let's remember how children learn to ride a bicycle: whoever thinks he will fall, really falls; those who are sure that they will immediately go, by some miracle keep their balance and go. We believe we can do it!

As for training, we do special exercises daily for 30-40 minutes during the 21st day. Psychologists believe that it takes so much time to get rid of an old habit and instill a new one.

For exercises, you need to choose a convenient time and place so that nothing distracts from reading. It is useless to do this, for example, in the subway, where it is impossible to concentrate.

What slows down reading?

1. Pronunciation of the text when reading “to yourself”, or subvocalization

This habit is laid down in us when we learn to read and pronounce each word aloud in syllables. We learned to read, but the habit remained. Some not only internally pronounce the text, but also move their lips. Naturally, fast reading is out of the question, because with all the desire a person is not able to say more than 500 words per minute. This means that he will read at the same speed. Those who master the methods of speed reading will be able to read up to 2 thousand words in the same time.

2. Regression reading

The main brake that hinders the speed of reading is the return movements of the eyes to the already read text. It seems to us that by rereading a phrase or paragraph, we delve deeper into its essence, but in reality this is not so. The logic of the text itself is violated, and we are forced to return to what we read again and again, which only aggravates the situation. Speed ​​reading experts believe that, if necessary, it is better to return to some place after the entire text has been read.

By getting rid of the regressions that most people read with, you can increase your reading speed by 2-3 times.

3. Limited field of view

The field of view is the space of perception of the text. For people who read slowly (and most of them), it is 4-5 cm. They can be compared with peeping through a keyhole, who see only a small part of the picture. Experts say that it is impossible to expand the field of view with training. But with their help, you can learn to perceive information that is located in the area covered by peripheral vision. And as a result of training, it can be up to 10 cm.

Exercises for developing the skill of speed reading

Knowing the "enemy" of speed reading "in person", we can eliminate it. Do not expect immediate results and be disappointed if they are not there or they leave much to be desired. Developing any new skill takes some time. It's like in sports: high results are achieved only by hard training.

1. Reading with a pointer

To make our eyes slide forward smoothly, we read with a pointer (sushi stick), moving it a little faster than our understanding of the text. You can also do this with your finger, if that's more convenient.

This exercise is called the speed reading exercise. The gaze should only follow the lines along which the pointer moves, and in no case let it out of sight, returning to what has already been read.

After a while, we will get rid of the regressions and be able to read without a pointer.

2. Suppress articulation

Some experts consider subvocalization to be a natural process that helps reduce the burden of learning new material. However, it significantly slows down reading.

Suppressing articulation - the work of the speech organs (tongue, lips, larynx) while reading “to yourself”, and not aloud, can be done with the help of distraction. That is, in parallel with reading, we (or a partner studying with us) can tap some kind of rhythm on the table with a pencil. This will distract us from the mental pronunciation of the text.

In addition to tapping, you can use the countdown method: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, etc. We will keep track of the score so as not to stray, and we will not be able to pronounce the words. Instead of counting, you can hum some motive (out loud or “to yourself”), read tongue twisters or simple rhymes by heart.

3. Green dot method

This method allows you to learn to perceive information in the field of peripheral vision. In the center of the page with some text, draw a green dot and focus on it for 10 minutes. Mentally imagine a green dot in front of us and when we go to bed and close our eyes.

After practicing with concentration on the green dot for two weeks, we begin to consider the text located horizontally and vertically from it. We try to cover as many words as possible with our eyes - they do not need to be read, just seeing is enough.

The green dot exercise can be complemented by classes with Schulte tables, designed specifically to improve peripheral vision. The tables themselves and the methodology for studying them can be downloaded from one of the sites.

4. Practice gibberish

Training in the so-called gibberish reading, or reading from right to left, develops thinking, attention and the ability to concentrate.

To get started, you can practice reading from right to left using a palindrome (from the Greek. "back" and "running") - words or phrases that read the same way from left to right, which is vice versa. Examples of a palindrome: “A rose fell on the paw of Azor”, “Rome is dear to the city or Mirgorod is dear”, “The cat will soon be forty days old”, “The boar pressed the eggplant”, etc. And then you can start training on a regular text. On the Internet, you can find a site that offers right-to-left e-books and order them for free.

5. Reading upside down

Upside down reading exercises can increase your reading speed. First, we read a paragraph in an inverted book, then return it to its normal position and reread it. We will immediately feel how easy and fast we can do it!

6. The tick-tock method

While reading, we capture only the beginning and end of the line with our eyes, and not every word, as in normal reading. This will be enough to understand the meaning of what is read, while the speed of reading will increase significantly.

7. Reading diagonally

The gaze glides along the diagonal of the page. Eye movements to the left or right are not allowed, return to what has already been read is also not allowed. At first, the gaze will cover only a few words, but as you practice, the amount of perception will increase. The main thing in this method is to learn how to highlight key phrases and skip verbal garbage. You need to start reading from the top left corner of the page to the bottom right. People who have mastered this method need only take a look at the page to understand what is at stake.

Those who want to thoroughly master the methods of speed reading should find the right book. This may be "Learning to read quickly" by I. Golovleva. There are also a lot of training video courses on the Web, for example, "More than speed reading."

It is convenient and interesting to learn speed reading with the help of various applications. One of them is Spreader. The text is loaded into it, and the number of words and the speed of their appearance can be set independently.

Before you start mastering the skills of speed reading, determine for yourself the main goal: what exactly do you want? Increase reading speed or learn twice as much information with the prospect of further application? Or maybe all at once?

There are many different methods for speed reading. Which ones are right for you - is determined only by practical means. Don't be afraid to skip an exercise if it doesn't work at all. Replace it with another. Any learning process, no matter how difficult and time-consuming it is, should bring pleasure and encourage you to further development. Classes in a group or with friends are a good spur to the progress.

Make a schedule of classes and stick to it (optimally 1.5-2 hours a day). Make reading a habit and devote your free time to it. Track your progress, it is possible that in a week you will notice a noticeable acceleration in reading.

It is also important to write down your results in order to understand when you find yourself on a "plateau" - the indicators will increase slightly and it may seem that you are standing still. This is not true. Be patient. "Plateau" should be used to develop already learned practices and then proceed to new ones. But in no case do not quit classes until you reach the desired number of words per minute.

Methods that can be implemented now

  1. Review the book (introduction, table of contents, conclusion) before reading. This will allow you to determine the structure of the material, highlight important places and those that can be neglected. To avoid "water" in the text, scan the page with your eyes. When reading quickly, the eye clings to specific phrases. By isolating them, proceed to thoughtful reading.
  2. The more you read in general, the easier it will be for you to skip introductory words, repetitions, and set constructions through guesswork.
  3. You can set the reading speed yourself by guiding the line with your finger, pencil or ruler. And in order not to look back at the paragraphs you read, cover them with a piece of paper.
  4. To develop peripheral vision, train with Schulte tables. These exercises will help to significantly reduce the search time for the necessary information by increasing the amount of visible text.
  5. You can learn by playing: try to find unfamiliar terms in the text, or all the words with the letters sh, f, l, m, n, o. Such training concentrates attention and perseverance in working with the text.

Books on speed reading and memory development

I used them during my self-study.

"Speed ​​Reading", Peter Kamp

This is a classic textbook on speed reading, which contains techniques and techniques for effective reading. Peter Kamp shares his theoretical and practical knowledge step-by-step on how to read non-fiction in 15 minutes, a novel at lunch, and an article on the Internet in a few seconds.

The course is designed for 6 weeks. Kamp relies not only on reading speed, but also on improving the skills of memorizing and reproducing the material read.

10 Day Quick Read by Abby Marks-Beal

A practical guide for "extreme" reading, when you need to absorb a large amount of information in the shortest possible time: during a session, when preparing a presentation or report. Classes are organized by day. Marks-Bill reminds of an individual approach to each exercise, so that the reader is not afraid to skip something or adapt it for himself. In active reading, all efforts are aimed at the result, and you yourself choose how to achieve it.

"Speed ​​Reading in Practice", Pavel Palagin

Palagin's book is suitable for practicing existing speed reading skills. The author, without wasting time, immediately proceeds to practical application: technique → exercise.

"Speed ​​reading in practice" helps to determine the goal, correctly identify the main theses of the read and concentrate on the material, regardless of the environment.

"Remember Everything", Artur Dumchev

A practical guide to memorization using mnemonic techniques. The scope is wide: from the password of mail to paragraphs of books. Dumchev writes without water, with clear instructions and humor, which sets an exciting mood for classes.

Mastering the material goes traditionally from simple to complex. I would advise you to highlight the necessary techniques for yourself at the first reading and then work them out, following the recommendations of the author.

Einstein Walks on the Moon by Joshua Foer

The value of Foer's book is in personal experience: how to turn from a person who always forgets the keys to the winner of a memorization contest in a year. The author studied the history of memory development in detail in order to use this data to better master the necessary skills. Feuer doesn't look at many techniques, only those he has used himself, but the book will be a great motivator for you to keep going.

At the mention of the technique of speed reading, the majority have the following questions: due to what is the increase in reading speed?

But they are all based on a few basic rules. So:

Some readers imperceptibly read any text twice - both easy and difficult, as if for fidelity. The areas of such re-fixations of the eyes that occur during traditional reading are sometimes very large.

As our studies have shown, regressions are quite common in slow reading, and their number is usually from 10 to 15 for a text of 100 words. It is clear that such frequent return movements of the eyes sharply reduce the speed of reading.

The main goal of the receptions is a deeper understanding of the text already read once. The speed reading technique recommends re-reading only after reading the entire text.

When reading a text with regressions, the eyes move backward, for example, from point 2 to point 3, although there is no need for this. If this happens on every line of text, then obviously the reader is reading the whole text twice.

It is this kind of regression that is considered one of the main drawbacks of traditional slow reading. Along with regressions during slow reading, returnable eye movements were also noted, caused by the apparent difficulties of the text.

These throwbacks are also a lack of reading. Very often, further reading removes questions and makes returns unnecessary. What is the nature of regression?

The first reason is force of habit. Fix the reasons for repeated reading: really difficult text or lack of attention?

Remember: avoiding regressions doubles your reading speed and triples your reading comprehension.



2. READ WITHOUT ARTICULATION

Articulation- these are involuntary movements of the lips, tongue, elements of the larynx when reading the text to oneself. The movements of the organs of speech during reading to oneself are inhibited only outwardly, but in fact they are in constant hidden movement.

The intensity of these micro-movements depends, first of all, on the level of development of the reading skill and the complexity of the text. The less developed the skill of reading to oneself (in children) and the more complex the text, the more pronounced the articulation.

Many people say they don't have articulation or don't know what it is. And others, on the contrary, say that they constantly hear someone mumbling nearby when they read the text.

Even if the reader declares that he has no articulation, special measurements manage to detect it. X-ray imaging of pharyngeal modulations during reading showed the presence of intracavitary articulation even in people who read relatively quickly.

Indeed, the elimination of the internal pronunciation of words is the most important source of increasing speed reading.

Moreover, even if it seems to you that you do not pronounce the words, then this is not so, the method of teaching reading, driven into our heads from elementary school - that is, reading aloud - makes itself felt and, as you know, relearning is much harder than learning .

The defect in pronunciation of readable words can be divided into the following components:

1. When speaking is accompanied by mechanical movements: moving the lips, moving the tongue, or, even worse - audio - mechanical effects - mumbling, etc. The fight against this is quite simple - keep something in your teeth, and even better keep your tongue teeth - no matter how ridiculous, but by changing the pain sensations (the degree of compression of the teeth), you can control the entire process of eradicating this inhibitory factor.

2. The most difficult to eradicate is the pronunciation of words in the brain - that is, the speech center. Here the method is used - a wedge is knocked out with a wedge. The center that controls the movement is somewhere near the speech center and you can try to suppress the speech center with the movement center - it’s super difficult to deal with this - holding something in your teeth will no longer save, but you can try the following. You record on a cassette some kind of rhythm (but not music) - for example, a metronome. Moreover, there should be several records with different frequency of beats and combined with a variable frequency of beats. You need to read to this knock (rhythm) and make movements while reading.

The main thing in the problem of fast reading is not so much speed as optimality, the efficiency of obtaining meaningful information due to the correct choice of the program for the semantic perception of the text.

Readers, as a rule, do not think about how to read this or that text. As a result, it is read equally slowly.

This or that speed and technique of reading is subject, first of all, to those goals, tasks and attitudes that the reader sets for himself. It is the development of appropriate programs, the ability to flexibly use each of them at the right time, that determine the ability to read quickly.

As a rule, traditional reading uses a small field of view. The field of view is a section of the text that is clearly perceived by the eyes with one fixation of the gaze.

In traditional reading, when 2-3 words are perceived at best, the field of view is very small. As a result, the eyes make many unnecessary jumps and fixations (stops).

This technique can be called crushing the look. The wider the field of view, the more information is perceived at each stop of the eyes, the fewer these stops, and as a result, reading becomes more efficient. A fast reader in one fixation of his gaze manages to perceive not 2-3 words, but the entire line, the whole sentence, sometimes the entire paragraph.

Reading text in whole sentences more efficient not only in terms of speed, it also contributes to a deeper reading comprehension. This is because the perception of large fragments of text at the moments of fixation with a glance causes visual-figurative representations that clearly clarify the meaning of the text.

Significantly reduces the speed of reading and the unproductive transition of the eyes from the end of each read line to the beginning of a new one. How many lines on a page, so many extra transitions, i.e., idle eye movements, for which it is spent; not only time, but also strength.

When reading quickly, eye movement is more economical: vertically, from top to bottom in the center of the page.

5. ALWAYS SELECT THE DOMINANT - THE BASIC SEMANTIC MEANING OF THE TEXT

Problem text comprehension has been fruitfully studied by psychologists for a long time. What is understanding? Psychologists call understanding the establishment of a logical connection between objects by using existing knowledge.

When reading a simple text, understanding, as it were, merges with perception - we instantly recall the previously acquired knowledge (we realize the known meaning of words) or select from the available knowledge the ones we need at the moment and associate them with new impressions.

But very often, when reading an unfamiliar and difficult text, understanding the subject (applying knowledge and establishing new logical connections) is a complex process that unfolds over time.

To comprehend the text in such cases, it is necessary not only to be attentive when reading, to have knowledge and be able to apply it, but also to master certain mental techniques. If it is necessary to remember the text, a person first tries to better understand it and uses various techniques for this.

Most often, readers use two main methods: selection of semantic strong points And anticipation.

Isolation of reference semantic points consists of the following. The division of the text into parts, their semantic grouping and lead to the selection of semantic strongholds, deepening understanding and facilitating the subsequent memorization of the material.

Psychologists have found out that the basis of understanding can be everything with which we associate, what is remembered or what itself “emerges” as connected with it. These may be some secondary words, additional details, definitions, etc.

Any association can be a support in this sense. A semantic strong point is something short, concise, but at the same time serving as the basis for some broader content. Understanding comes down to grasping in the text the main ideas, significant words, short phrases that predetermine the text of subsequent pages.

The technique of highlighting semantic strong points is, as it were, a process of filtering and compressing the text without losing the basis.

Another technique used to further comprehend the text being read is called anticipation or anticipation, that is, a semantic guess. What is anticipation? It is a psychological process of orientation towards a foreseeable future.

It is based on knowledge of the logic of the development of an event, assimilation of the results of the analysis of signs, previously carried out by operational thinking. Anticipation is provided by the so-called latent reaction of expectation, which sets the reader up for certain actions when, according to the text, there are seemingly no sufficient grounds for these reactions.

The phenomenon of anticipation is possible only when thinking is actively working in a productive mode. With this reading, the reader relies more on the content of the text as a whole than on the meaning of individual words. The main thing is to comprehend the idea of ​​content, to identify the main intention of the author of the text.

Thus, when teaching speed reading, the ability to anticipate is the main factor in the formation of a kind of flair for phrase stereotypes and the accumulation of a sufficient vocabulary of text clichés. Identification of phrasal stereotypes is one of the first prerequisites for the development of automatism of semantic text processing.

6. CONSTANTLY DEVELOP YOUR ATTENTION AND MEMORY

What is attention? Attention- this is the selective orientation of consciousness when performing a certain work. Fast reading requires increased attention. Unfortunately, we are not always organized, we do not know how to control our attention when reading.

The reading speed of most readers is far below what they could have without compromising comprehension. In a slow reader, attention often switches to extraneous thoughts and objects, and interest in the text decreases. Therefore, large fragments are read mechanically and the meaning of what is read does not reach consciousness.

Such a reader, noticing that he is thinking about extraneous things, is often forced to reread the passage again. A person who reads quickly is able to control his attention.


Ability to concentrate on the problem is one of the components of successful mental work. Try to train your ability to concentrate by mentally reading words backwards.

When you mentally read a word backwards, you must spell it out and then read those letters. For example - "word" - "ovols", "road" - "agorod". If your consciousness is distracted by a third-party object, then the thread is instantly lost and you have to do the exercise again. Thus, you can train your attention.

This exercise can be done in public transport and thus use the wasted time to your advantage. Start with simple four-letter words. Gradually try to operate with longer words.

7. PERFORM THE DAILY MANDATORY RATE:

read two newspapers, one magazine (scientific-technical or popular science) and 50-100 pages of any book. Mastering the technique of speed reading is indeed a process of complex influence on various aspects of a person's mental activity.

Figuratively speaking, in the learning process program of technical re-equipment of the brain. There is a restructuring of consciousness, the prevailing stereotypes of thinking are broken. There are good books on teaching speed reading. For example, the book Andreev O. A. and Khromov L. N. "Learning to read quickly."

But the most effective option for teaching speed reading is special trainings and classes in groups.

The main thing to remember is that speed reading is not for the elite. Diligence and consistency in training is important.